Bottom Paint Question

I have found the ablatives, and I've tried all of the brands with the various yachts that I manage, to not be nearly as effective as hard paint. Since you're stripping the bottom I would go with a good hard paint from Interlux such as the ultra bottom coat. The hard paints tend to go 6 months in south florida without growing hardly any barnacles at all, whereas the ablatives start growing them within a month or two. That being said, if after a season you don't feel the hard paint is working for you, then you can put ablative right over it. Once you put ablative, there is no going back to hard paint unless you strip it once again. I have not used the VC brand, however the best luck I've had with ablative was the Super Hawk brand.......Micron CSC seems to be the least effective here in South Florida.

Bottom Paints

The best ablative I have found is SeaHawk Islands 44 but you have to purchase it in the Bahamas. It will last at least 2 years in the worst conditions.

I agree with Capt J ...it's hard to go wrong with Interlux Ultra. And if you want to try another paint later, I think you can put just about anything on top of it.

I am embarrassed to say that my marina uses an ablative made by intelux but I don't know the exact name. I short haul every other year and have had no problem here in the NE. I use a diver on the off years. When I redid my bottom a number of years ago my first coat was black, followed by two coats of blue. I have never gotten down to the black and I only put one coat of blue on every other year as said. I use my boat almost every weekend and cruise it about 27 knots. I think your off shore trips once a week off shore should work with any quality ablative

The bottom is already painted with SeaHawk Islands 44 and must be repainted with the same type of paint unless I have it sanded. It has lasted for over 2 years, going on a third with no growth. The water here in C. Fl is pretty hard on bottom growth. On previous Interlux Micron 66 which is a good paint I still had some barnacle growth and during the summer had to have the bottom cleaned every 10 days. I use Propspeed on the running gear and it works good although it needs to be re-applied every year. Next boat will give Interlux Ultra a try. I run the boat every week at cruise even if just for a few miles. This definitely helps as well.

That's tythe exact problem I found with the Micron. If you need a diver every 10 days, the paint is just not doing it's job and not effective. I've had Micron grow barnacles like wildfire in the summertime, even with fresh paint.

Gonnabe

As you know we have much different conditions up here in the N.E. than the south. I've had great results as described using an ablative for many seasons now. The nice thing about the ablative is that there is no build up over time.
The "hard" paints need to be sanded off every few years. No paint will hold up if the boat just sits in a slip, but your intended regular usage should allow that ablative to work fine.